Perkins, Bauer: Obama’s Support of Gay Marriage Helps Romney

Conservative Christians Gary Bauer and Tony Perkins said Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will fare well with evangelical voters and is on the road to a White House victory.

“I fully expect to be at his swearing in,” said Bauer, president of American Values. “I think the president this past week took six or seven states he carried in 2008 and put them in play with this one, ill-conceived position.”

President Barack Obama’s controversial and historic stance in support of gay marriage has been described by some Republicans as a diversionary tactic to draw attention away from his failure to improve the economy.

Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said the president’s remarks are not a political distraction.

“I don’t think the way the Republicans on Capitol Hill are addressing it is the way to do it, saying it’s a distraction,” Perkins said. “Defending the family, the cornerstone of civilization, is not a distraction. It should be a priority. I don’t know that I would say he put this out there as a political distraction. I think this is who he is.”

Bauer said Obama’s statement that gay-marriage laws are up to the states is “a joke” because the administration doesn’t enforce the Defense of Marriage Act.

“As this president pushes this radical agenda, America realizes this is more than marriage,” Perkins said. “It’s about education of our children. It’s about religious freedom. It’s about public accommodations. It’s a lot more than just marriage, and Americans are catching on to that.”